How the Miami Dolphins’ Wilkins has turned a childhood tragedy into a life of service

Want to know why Kenny Stills kneels?

For people like Eurie Stamps, and Stamps’ grandson, Christian Wilkins — Stills’ newest teammate and a great big breath of fresh air in a sports town that needs it.

Eight years before the Dolphins made the gregarious Wilkins, a defensive tackle from Clemson, the 13th overall pick of the 2019 draft, Wilkins was a distraught and confused teenager.

Stamps, a grandfather of 12, was a father figure for Wilkins.

And in a tragic, avoidable instant, he was gone.

A Framingham, Mass., police officer accidentally shot an unarmed Stamps in the head while he lay face-down on the floor during a raid on Stamps’ home in 2011.

Cops were looking for Stamps’ stepson and the drugs they believed the stepson were selling out of the house. (The city would later settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family for $3.8 million.)

Only a stroke of luck prevented Wilkins from being in the apartment when his grandfather was killed.

“I was living with him, [but] I actually stayed somewhere else that night,” Wilkins said. “Obviously the next morning I get a call and everything and the news was broken to me.”

His emotions?

“It wasn’t really much anger,” Wilkins said. “It was kind of just like, ‘Man, that’s my dude. I lost my man.’ You know what I mean? But then, quickly, I realized that there’s no reason to pout. That’s not going to bring him back. So I just made a decision, shortly after that I’m going to be his legacy and he’s going to live on through me. That’s something that I try to bring each and every day, just bring his energy, his spirit. So when you see me, you see my grandfather. None of y’all know him, but if you see me, you see my grandfather.”

His grandfather must have had an irrepressible personality.

Because Wilkins, who says he can play both tackle and end for the Dolphins, has been a revelation.

He graduated Clemson a year and a half early, and instead of sitting around playing Fortnite, he signed up to become a substitute teacher — mostly for high school and elementary school kids.

“I felt like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop,” Wilkins said. “They were falling all over me. They were like, ‘Mr. Wilkins, Mr. Wilkins.’ I was like, ‘Dude, my name is Christian.’ It was funny to have that power, that teacher role.”

Some who endured what Wilkins has would live a bitter life. He’s trying to live one of service.

He called himself “the total package,” but not in a conceited way.

But rather, as “someone who gives their all on the field, wants to be the best at what I do. But also the type of guy off the field who is going to try to do everything right, be the example. I lead in the best way I know how, serve my teammates, and do everything I can for those guys around me because I just feel like my purpose and my responsibility here on this earth and in life is to make everyone around me better and serve others.”

That doesn’t mean Wilkins is all serious, all the time.

Far from it.

Thursday night alone, he strut and posed his way up the NFL Draft’s red carpet and then crashed into NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell after his name was announced.

“He’s way more solid than I thought,” Wilkins joked. “He’s got some oomph. It kinda hurt me a little bit. But no he’s a pretty solid guy. I’m glad he was able to do the 14th selection, he was able to come back out for that. But, yeah, he almost didn’t make it there but I’m glad he did.”

The moment was great. So was the photo capturing it.

“First thing I thought was, ‘Look at that vert,’” Wilkins added. “I had to show off my athleticism a little bit. I hope Dolphins fans and everybody saw a little bit of my athleticism. But that was cool. He was kind of just like cowering, seeing me, like late reaction. It was pretty funny, something I’ll remember forever and I’m sure he won’t forget it either.”

This story was originally published April 26, 2019 at 4:22 PM.